Existing comment:
René Castro
born Viña del Mar, Chile 1943
I Am Ashamed MLK
1992
screenprint on paper
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2020.45.2
San Francisco's Mission District rejoiced in 1986 when the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday was finally established. In the years that followed, local printmakers like Castro issued prints honoring the slain civil rights leader. This image unites King's likeness with a quote from his famous 1967 speech against the U.S. war in Vietnam: "the greatest purveyor of violence on earth is my own country." Castro added text near the bottom of the print to point out that the start of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 closely coincided with the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day that year. |